The ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018 returns to Atlanta this Saturday (July 21st), but unlike last year, things will be a lot different this time around.

Wanting to avoid boring matches, the tournament will only host 8 high-seed teams instead of the 16 teams from last year. All eight teams received a direct invite to the event, so there were no qualifiers whatsoever. But, while that’s unusual, we shouldn’t expect the invited teams to give nothing but their best, especially with the prize pool for ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018 being set at a whopping $1,000,000.

ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018: Initial Details

Start Date: 2018.07.21

End Date: 2018.07.29

Location: Atlanta, Usa

Venue: G-Fuel ELEAGUE Arena

Organizer: ELEAGUE

Type: Offline, LAN

Number of Teams: 8

Total prize pool: $1,000,000 USD

ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018: Tournament Format

Group Stage: July 21 to July 25, 2018

Two double-elimination groups

4 teams per group

Top 2 teams from each group advance to the semifinals

All matches are Bo3

Playoffs: July 28 to July 29 2018

Single-Elimination bracket

Semifinals are Bo3

Grand Final is Bo5

ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018: Betting Tips

Group A:

Despite the fact that the tournament is held in North America, only 2 North American teams received a direct invite to the event. Both Cloud9 and Liquid are placed in Group A, and there is a very big possibility that the hometown crowd will not have a team to cheer for past the first stage of the tournament.

Astralis was unstoppable right before ESL One Cologne 2018 last week, where they lost in the semifinals against Natus Vincere. Is it too early to say that the end of their era is coming? Or will they come back even stronger? Chances are, we’ll find out in this tournament.

Their first match is against Cloud9, once the best team in America. Last year, Cloud9’s performance on LAN tournaments in the US was amazing. But this team has suffered many roster loses and we don’t believe that this team can really achieve much, especially against this calibur of competition.

While anything can happen in a best-of-three, we’re going with Astralis taking this via sweep. They’re simply the better team, with a much wider map pool. Not to mention that Cloud9 has had no time to practice with their new players.

After a series of unfortunate events, Liquid left ESL One Cologne with 0 maps won. To say that they’re in bad shape right now is only fitting. But, then again, MIBR aren’t exactly doing well themselves, losing against underdog teams like BIG and are constantly making roster changes in an attempt to get on the top again. This time, another Cloud9 player came to replace one Brazilian, as tarik replaced boltz and he is now a player of MIBR. It is kind of ironic that the team who is called Made in Brazil is bringing American players and they now make 40% of the team.

From the betting aspect, the best thing to do is to avoid betting on the winner of this match. Both teams are playing terrible and it is impossible to know what would tarik bring to MIBR. However, if you insist on betting, chances are the winners will end up taking this series 2-0.

Natus Vincere are doing great lately and are easily the best team at this tournament. Not only that, but Natus Vincere have won the last 5 head to head matches against Fnatic.

With the team riding the highs of winning and s1mple in the best form of his career, we believe Natus Vincere will win this match easily, dropping only one map at best and that’s if they don’t ban Dust2.

Good news for all CS:GO fans, especially FaZe fans. After 3 months of long absence, the mighty olofmeister is back.

With croman as a stand-in FaZe was doing great, they actually won ESL One Belo Horizonte and they placed third at ESL One Cologne this month. With olof back, everything is possible for FaZe. In their full roster they are capable of destroying Astralis and we hope to watch these 2 teams in the grand finals once again.

From the betting aspect, FaZe won in the 4 last matches against Mous, even tho they did not have olof. FaZe is a team constructed of 5 superstars, even if they are playing bad it is enough that only one of them goes “wild” and that is why are they one of the best teams currently. This match would probably end up with 2-0 victory for Faze.

ELEAGUE CSGO Premier 2018: Where to Watch

These are the most carefully formulated match predictions, by analysts who thoroughly study team histories and playing styles. Stay tuned for more match-by-match analyses and predictions for this event.

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